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This guitar, currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $299, presents us with something of a conundrum. The seller lists it as follows:

Vintage Rare Hofner Electric Guitar

I bought this guitar around 2002. I suspected it was a Hofner though it did not have anything on the headstock to indicate that. At the Dallas guitar show that year there was a Hofner guy that confirmed for me that indeed it was a Hofner and offered a substantial amount of money for it. I declined because my intentions had been to get the guitar working for my own use but it's been sitting around, I've had some financial problems, and now I want to sell it.

I think that the "Hofner guy" at the Dallas guitar show doesn't know what he's talking about. I'd swear that it was a Vox Marauder. Unless Hofner had a near identical model, or Vox/Hofner had guitars built at the same factory and branded them afterwards (which is something I'm not aware of, but I'm not ruling it out).

Can anyone confirm or deny my suspicions?

G L Wilson

EDIT: The listing has ended already. I guess someone used the Buy It Now option. I did, by the way, email the seller saying I believed it to be a Vox Marauder.

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guitarz.blogspot.com:

I've not seen another guitar like this before, and I suppose a lap steel (or console guitar) would be the only kind of guitar that would suit this format. It's a Selmer-branded lap steel which is actually built into its own case. That is to say, the case forms part of the guitar body. All you need to do is open and detach the lid, plug the guitar in and you're ready to go.

Selmer were a musical instrument manufacturer established in the early 1900s and based in Paris (surely their best known guitars were the gypsy jazz guitars as played by Django Reinhardt). By 1928 they had aquired a semi-independent UK branch. From the 1950s and through to the 1970s some of Selmer UK's own-brand guitars were produced by Germany's Höfner especially for the UK market. With the logo on this particular example proudly proclaiming "London, England", it's possible that this is a Höfner-made instrument. Unless you know differently...

Unfortunately the eBay auction for this guitar has already ended, although it did not sell despite a starting price of £175 (which I'd say was cheap for a vintage lap steel, and a possible Höfner-made one to boot). If you are interested, keep checking those auctions as maybe it will be re-listed at some point.

G L Wilson

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Dave Coulson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Guitarz reader Bobby writes:

I bought a strange guitar a couple of years ago off of ebay, but am struggling to find any information on it...

The pickup is a Höfner, but I can't find a similar/same one online in Google searches. It's a very thin body, all one piece with the neck.... Do you or your readers have any ideas?

Well, seeing as it has a Höfner pickup my first question has to be is there any possibility it could be a Höfner? It's certainly not a model that I'm aware of, but I guess another possibilty is that it's been heavily modified. The pickguard does look to be homemade, and the blue finish is almost certainly a piece of self customisation.

It's possible that the whole guitar was built from parts, although the fact that this isn't a bolt-on neck job, but instead it is glued into the body (or else is a neck-through which I kind of doubt) would make this quite a mean feat for the casual DIY luthier.

This guitar has a very 1960s look to it, so I'm guessing that is when it dates from. The headstock shape is reminiscent of those on certain Vox guitars of the period, but is this original to the neck or has it been re-shaped? And then there's those tuners ... I've seen those somewhere else, surely?

So, do any of you guys out there recognize this axe or have any clues as to its provenance? Pleae let us know in the usual way via the comments. Thanks.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Bertram (yes I'm back!)


© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

In the 1960s Höfner made Telecaster one of its unescapable models.

But they didn't just copy the Fender original model, this is their own version, that has everything more or less different: as much as I can see with the angle even the body shape (bigger horn, isn't it?) is slightly modified, as is the headstock, also the rectangular control plate with the jack output, big knobs and flat head switch, the truncated pickguard and of course the pickups that look like nothing I've seen so far...

And on top of that it has one of these extra cool Höfner trems!

Bertram

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Now here's a Höfner guitar that I've not seen before. And no wonder, it's what they call an "evaluation model". I think that means "prototype" to you and me.

Here's what the seller has to say about it:

Höfner HE179, Jazzmaster style evaluation model, mint condition, in original carton very rare. In 2003 Höfner designers came up with a jazzmaster styled model in very limited number (apprx 50) which were sent out to specific dealers for evaluation across the World. Perhaps not wishing to go up head to head with Fender on the similarities of the jazzmaster, Höfner decided not to proceed. [...] Maple body, with rich sunburst finish, Grover tuners, stop tailpiece and adjustable tuneomatic bridge, 3 way pickup switch, volume and 2 tone controls, fully bound neck and headstock. Pickups are a pair of stonking Gibson-style humbuckers (which look suspiciously like a set of Lindy Fralin Nickels), fully pole-adjustable, these produce a mighty punch. One of these guitars found its way to Oz last year and fetched over £1000 on Oz Ebay.

So, there you have it. Personally I wouldn't have thought that the body shape would put Höfner "head to head with Fender", as plenty of other manufacturers have borrowed this same body style. I'm also not too keen on the 3+3 headstock design with this body shape; it looks a tad incongruous.

Whatever, it would seem to be quite an individual guitar for the player who doesn't want to have the same axe as everyone else, and the Buy It Now price of £340 seems very reasonable.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Hi, my name is Kalle Mattsson, for me the internet pretty much is gmail, facebook and Guitarz these days.

Today I came across this add on the Dutch version of ebay:

http://link.marktplaats.nl/425168240

The ad only says that the seller wants to know wether or not this is a valuable guitar, and that he doesn´t trust that is says Höfner on the headstock.

It does have some nice features, and I thought you might like to see it.

All the best

Kalle

Wow! That guitar certainly has a very interesting finish. I think the "seller" is right to be suspicious of the Höfner name on the headstock - it's not like any Höfner I've seen before. It looks more like an Egmond, which - given the location - would be quite feasible. Maybe an Egmond fitted with a Höfner neck?

Does anyone else out there have any better information to offer?

G L Wilson

Edit: Several people have suggested that it might be an Isana, a relation of this guitar perhaps.

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This vintage Hofner archtop acoustic caught my eye on eBay. Despite asking a Buy It Now price of $1,500, the seller offers no information about it other than it's "All Original, never modded." Hhhhhmmmm, for that kind of money I think I'd want a bridge. But anyway, I digress. Does anyone out there know the model? And is that a third soundhole or is it a diamond-shaped label?

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Jim Hevesy writes:

I was at the petrol station yesterday after my son’s basketball game and this guy starts talking to me. Here is the conversation:

Guy: Hey man….are you a musician?
Me: (I’ve got music stickers on my truck) Yes I am
Guy: Awww Cool! What do you play?
Me: I play Bass, Guitar and a little Banjo
Guy: Aww man are you into bluegrass?
Me: I’ve played some bluegrass, I played in a symphony, I’ve played everything but rap
Guy: Aww that is cool. Hey I betcha don’t see one of these every day...

He then proceeds to open the back of his work truck and get out an old small guitar case. He opens it and here’s what he pulls out:

That’s right! A 1960s Hofner 459 6-string with wammy bar. He said he only paid $500 (375 euro) for it! It was strung up with round wounds and sounded great playing even with no amp and the -2C weather. I finished pumping my gas and we both got in our trucks and left. After I got in my car is when I realized I should have taken a picture with my phone because it was a beauty. My son said “Dad, did that guy used to be a hippy?” I said “no son, he still is a hippy!”

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Filippo writes:

Hello,

I noticed my Hofner Bat on http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2010/05/hofner-bat-prototype-from-1960.html

I'm restoring it.

Found the right tuners, the bridge, the truss rod cover and all knobs/controls. All Hofner parts (except for the selector and switch) from the 60s, of course.

A friend of mine, a genius, restored the neck & headstock. Completely restored except s/n and some finish wear. Impossible to realize it has been restored. Still not reglued.

Body and pickups still untouched.

The new scratchplate has been made after hours of work to obtain the right sizes. Conclusions drawn by an architect who has been based on some photographs + body signes valutation. A perfect job done with old 4 layers piece.

The amp: the original one is gone and it isn't possible to have it.

I'll buy a small amp (which?????) and in a way or in another way I'll install it with a 4" speaker or a bigger one mounted with an option.

This guitar will be equipped with a modern amp with digital effects without extra holes or other modifications. Of course!

It needs an amp, so why not a modern one? It's inside and will be great for (home and entertainment only) playing!

Best regards,
Filippo

Great to hear from you, Filippo, and I'm so pleased to hear that this fantastic old guitar is being restored. If you want to send us any further photos of the resoration process or the finished guitar, we'd love to see them here on Guitarz.

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

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Recently, when we were looking at a Gibson ES 125, I was speaking of my fondness for the non-cutaway design on electric hollowbody guitars. Well here's another similarly designed vintage beauty, the Hofner E1. For a guitar made in the early 1960s this one appears to be in fantastic condition, and the Buy It Now price is a very attractive £475. In this modern age, a two pickup electric guitar of this design looks really incongruous, but I can't help liking it. Interestingly, there's no pickup selector switch - I guess you select pickups by using the volume controls.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

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You could be forgiven for thinking that Hofner were a one-trick pony when it came to bass guitars, but there were other models than the one popularised by a certain Beatle. For example, how about this attractive Hofner 500/BZ from 1968 with semi-hollow construction and twin Florentine cutaways. It also features on-board fuzz circuitry as was sometimes the fashion in the day. Fantastic!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

bertram



Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

We didn't have a German vintage guitar here for ever! Time is right to show this Höfner 173 with 3 pickups (humbucker-like but probably single coils with big covers - something not unusual at the time) on a strat shaped body and an ubercool trem system.

That's now that I start to rant: "Why don't they do all these cool trems anymore and we have to choose between 3 boring models when 40 years ago every guitar maker would create his own system - they worship all that is wrong in vintage and despise all that is right!"

brm, brm

bertram






Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

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According to the listing on eBay this highly unusual Höfner BAT from 1960 was a prototype guitar first shown at Frankfurt in 1960, although it never went into production. The guitar incorporated a built-in amp and speaker, taking advantage of the then-new technology offered by the transistor.

Unfortunately this (lone surviving?) example of this model does not have a functioning amp, whilst several parts are not original and the neck is not currently glued in.

This guitar we might call "museum quality". It's not going to be a player, but for the collector it must surely by a very interesting piece.

Thanks to Nathan for bringing this intriguing guitar to our attention.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!